romulus22

13 hours ago, alwaysonaship said:

We were stations at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico and came back by ship to New York via Cuba 56,or 57...it had to have been one of those ships.

My dad was at Ft Brooke, in San Juan, where El Morro is, and we lived at Ft Buchanan, which is where we got off the ship.  Ramey was the nicest base on the island, we were so envious of you guys

On 8/26/2020 at 7:33 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

First two ships:  USAT Henry Gibbons which took us from New York to Cuba and Puerto Rico.  MSTS Buckner which took us from New York to Bremerhaven.  Can't remember at the moment the name of the ship we took in the Med.

 

Boy, does this bring back some memories.  My dad was stationed in Puerto Rico, so our first trip to San Juan was the MSTS Pvt William H Thomas in August, 1956.  I was going into 4th grade.  All of our other trips (3 in total) were on the Henry Gibbons, which I think is the top picture.  My dad, and one of my brothers and I were in cabin 301, which had 8 bunks, and was as far back, and as far down as you could go for a passenger cabin.  Shared bathroom down the hall.  This ship was in service until about 10-15 years ago, mostly as a training ship at the Cape Cod Maritime Academy

I get currency at my local bank before I leave, they charge me a $10 fee, which is reasonable.  I use my bank's Visa card in Europe, since nobody takes American Express.  Cash is for small meals, tips, the occasional local tour operator. I usually take about 2 times what I think I'll need. Be sure that you get rid of as much coinage as possible before returning, banks will accept paper currency only when changing back to American currency

Pick up a couple of packets of wipes, about the size of a packet of Kleenex.  I bought a package of 6 on Amazon.  Also, OneTouch wipes, the packet is a little bigger

Buy some stock in a Cruise Corporation that you sail on quite frequently.  My wife has 100 shares each of Carnival (Princess, Holland America and a few others belong to this corporation) and Royal Caribbean (includes Celebrity).  We get $100 cruise credit as stockholders, and is the only reason we hold this stock. .  And, someday, the price may go up.

Look for deals where a lot on on-board credit is offered.  Free gratuities is always a good deal.  Free excursions or free internet do not matter to us.

We hardly ever bother with ship excursions, we have found better deals in every port by researching on-line.

As Elite passengers on Royal Caribbean, we can get sodas and wine for free at some bars, and just carry them into dinner (this will take multiple cruises to build up to this)

We both have American Express cards, tied to Delta   Sky Miles.  In addition to miles being tied to daily purchases, Delta offers up to 3x the miles on the purchase price of the cruise, plus 10,000 extra miles, and, usually a lot of the usual perks. Not strictly a money saver for cruising, but, if you are ever flying somewhere, you'll really appreciate this savings.

The specialty restaurants usually offer up to 50% off the first night of the cruise, so, this is when we go to one

My wife likes her chocolate martinis, but, we rarely have a balance over $100 at the end of any cruise